MFW 020 | Balancing Female Hormones Naturally | Bridgit Danner
New Bridgit Danner
Dr. Kyle passionately serves the Michigan community at the Michigan Family Wellness clinic where he specializes in pregnancy, pediatrics, and family wellness care.
Transcript
[0:00] Music.
[1:04] It is your greatest asset.
Best way to have a healthy family is by the living a family wellness lifestyle so if you're looking for a fishing affected and sustainable ways to elevate your health and the health of your family then i strongly recommend you make yourself comfortable,
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by visiting power jim dot com that's pow r g y m dot com welcome families to the interview portion of today's podcast my guest on the show today is bridget dan are,
bridget runs an on-line women's health community called women's wellness collected through this community she interviews experts in women's health three blocks videos,
cast an on-line summit's project practice chinese medicine for really twelve years and has for,
form over twelve thousand treatments she's also a certified functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner,
she has worked extensively in the fertility field and has worked with many professional women and helping them find health within their busy lives pretty became passionate about women's health after her own postpartum health.
[2:43] Six with the help of life coaching holistic nutrition functional medicine and whole food cooking she was able to recover from postpartum depression epstein barr virus.
And train of this regulation she loves to share the tools and skills she's learned along with the tools of other experts to help women everywhere find the energy and balance the.
[3:03] Welcome to the podcast bridget it's so great to have you back for helping for me,
sir bridge i just sold our listeners ship a little bit about you as the professional but one of the core values here on the mission family on this podcast is family can you tell us more about you as the person and perhaps what does family look like for you.
[3:24] Sure so i have a small immediate family i have just once and then i think sometimes when your family of three people think,
what's something with you may not of family but i really think it's important new unis small family that we really interact as a family we eat together we exercise together you know we go on trips together and,
say i it's definitely important for me to a new,
kind of shape our son's values even tell me what i am and then i'm you know i'm in my early forties and my parents are getting older and a kind of each that.
Tweets in my life where next day my relationship with my parents is evolving and it's and it's very sweet.
And name in the pacific northwest and we have some extended family and in other town so you know we do some weekend trips to visit and.
Definitely a point my life where it's very important to me,
awesome i just love to have our listeners should can it connect with different people's family dynamics and what it looks like for each of them mention the pacific northwest i would love to get out there at some point,
in the same line of you know geographically speaking another thing i love to stay here on the mission family on this podcast is that were smitten with the mitten.
[4:44] So i always ask my guests to share anything they love about michigan and no have you ever visited the state or have any places favorite places that we might want to share with us yeah you know i got.
Maybe i'm i'm cool i was close but they'll call you my little background i was raised army brat my dad is from chicago and his family has had like,
beach house in michigan city indiana for,
no decade so i have a lot of fond memories of being on lake michigan,
as a child just at the beach playing in stuff to me like some of my fondest childhood memories awesome yeah lake michigan again one of my favorite places we were just out there for the fourth of july holiday with my wife's family what we do is that to rent a lake house and just you know enjoy the fireworks there is not much that be,
it's lake michigan in terms of quality lakes you know in the state so i'm with you there well,
awesome well thanks bridge it's been a pleasure getting to know you more but let's shift gears and talk a little bit about.
Everything you're doing with functional medicine and kind of the practitioner education that you're doing so just to be clear for our listeners let's establish a framework here so that the parents and families listening.
Can't get real value of what we're talking about here,
so typically speaking let's say you're having some kind of health issue or just go with the fatigue model and you may go to your medical doctor and they may decide to run some blood work or some lab test.
[6:21] And so typically there is now a complete blood count which would be defined as like medically necessary so there's there's gonna take some blood they're gonna test it there to see if anything's comes back abnormal.
Alright so now let's say that those lab tests those lab results come back but everything is within that normal range okay.
And your md says hey congratulations your lab tests are normal but here's the thing you're still feeling exhausted or you're still feeling you have tons of,
rain foggy or,
or momma this regulation okay now depending on the doctor at this point you'll either at your either get a general prescription for a medication with no real clinical reasoning or you'll be told that your fatigue or whatever your issue is you know might be on your head and your crazy no just you know,
push you out the door and tell you there's nothing they can do i can tell you how many times i've heard this story for my patients and from people in my community,
so enter the functional medicine model so as a functional medicine practitioner.
[7:25] These are people who are looking at more comprehensive lab testing okay so.
Not just nero parameters of values in the blood but they're also looking at all those upstream and down stream values.
And again everyone's different there are no two bodies that are exactly the same so what's what's defined as normal.
You know for one person may be completely abnormal for the other person so functional medicine doctor of functional medicine practitioners gonna take that into account.
When they're looking at these lab test,
results and here's another thing brigitte which i'm sure you can get into with your practitioner education doesn't matter if it's blood saliva hair stool you know that functional medicine doctor is looking at,
tons of different things to really get the best benefits and value and really time travel that patients elevator health and wellness.
The fast so i know i've said a lot here really quick.
But i do wanna give everyone just a simple analogy and i kinda wanna use analogy of a river so let's say that a river is a home and freely,
flowing smooth at river and in this metaphor that represents good health,
or optimal health okay so let's say that over time the flow of that river,
it decreases the rate of loss does not flying as fast or it's not flying as smoothly some of the plants that grow around in that area and the fish that like to hangout growing feet in that area you know they're having a harder time.
[9:02] So in this analogy the functional medicine doctor would be looking at okay hate not only what's going on right in that area of that river,
but also asking the question you know what's change what happened you know bob stream what happened down stream you know what's going on what what's the,
big picture was that thirty thousand foot view where as again in this model just being very general here the typical the classical,
medical approach my beats on me look at our right what's going on right in the section of the river.
So does that kinda make sense to you bridge of the second resonate with the community that you're an shit area in and be happy to kinda dig deeper and why why some labs,
appear to be normal wear and tear may not think may not be your yeah option that people can explore if they feel like,
yeah we have gone to a practitioner ans.
Just not you know not found the results or answers they one and yeah no no preached to where can discussing how this relates to you know women's hormone health can you speak more about that for a listener should i think there's a couple things,
come on my nigga blamed for everything in a general way like oh it's my mama zero it's stress and you know,
those things might be in the right direction but you kinda have to break it down a little more than that.
So your friend since it's not normal to have pm master to have really heavy periods are irregular periods and sometimes people will just tell us just my hormones.
[10:39] Which that's not how nature intended to be and we have to take a,
better looking like wood is this regulating our hormones and you give an example of it either earlier which is really common complaint as well and my that can be elusive is,
now say you're going to the doctor in a blood test like you said it could be you know so many things playing in it could be,
you your blood sugar regulation and you may not be diabetic dad but it could be often that gives you a highs and lows those highs and lows can stress your hormones are female hormones your hormone production,
because this is a concept when it i got it for the first time was a real label like its stress for your body to,
give me all are to know each giant ice cream sundae and then you know get a stomach-ache so.
Yeah there's there's a lot of you know ways to look or places to look for how are female hormones get this regulated,
or how we get anti fatigue and yes some of it is stress but we can also break that down you know it's environmental strasse.
Is that you know kind of self-inflicted because they're not,
getting to bed at a reasonable hour in other relationships jobs we may need to get out of there stress from our diets you know for eating foods that your retainer god.
[12:05] So there's yeah there's no there's lots of sources and six we we always we talk a lot about hormones in my platform but we also do a lot of digging like.
[12:17] It's under neath like that and wider you of of what is chasing what is hormone imbalance,
absolutely ragin many of my patients and many of our listeners here you know they're having those sleep disturbances they're having your ability depressive moods anxiety physical mental and emotional exhaustion joint and muscle complaints and all these things can really be tied to that,
and the cream dysfunction that hormonal dysfunction specifically like you mention the stress response and.
[12:48] That's one of the things that i really help many people but women especially with at the office with that chiropractic adjustment tuning that central nervous system.
Two down regulate those stress hormones those inflammatory cytokines they're just prolonging that inflammatory response now as it relates to hormones do you prefer or do you advocate within your educational per,
practitioner communities.
[13:14] More blood testing to check for hormones or saliva testing or a combination of the two you know let's say someone's resonating with your message here and should they be trying to find someone that's gonna tester saliva or test or your and or test or blood speak a little bit about that,
yeah i'm in the first line test i learn was blood test and i'm glad i i didn't learn it first,
but necessarily say it's the best hormone tasks,
how do you think i call just would say you could tester like a three estrogen and and,
fsh and lh anything,
test the wind gesture on some doctors are gynecologist or functional medicine practitioners can test that and you get a clear snapshot on those days so it for some my fertility clients you know that information that you will let us are also.
You know little easier to get access to may be ready had some times run and there are covered by insurance and a functional medicine practitioner,
this training can take a look at that else can give you some background like we talked about earlier you know what's behind the hormone problems because of the blood tests we cannot see you know your,
blood sugar is looking will i have it looks like you may be having trouble digesting proteins so there's really cool information also nowadays app and test vitamin d which is technically a hormone and and that can affect a lot of things so yeah i would say.
[14:44] What has to me is more like good background information my favorite hormone test the urine test call the dutchess test,
can't yeah it's pretty easy to take up on this like litmus paper for five times a day and.
Can the it will tell you basically what's coming out your urine you know with hormones are you breaking down or what you know.
What's coming out of the trash says he is can tell us about your hormone levels and also how your informants down in because they take the test for five times a day.
Like the saliva test is well known for gino cycles you can also get a sense of your adrenal cycles of like i don't know i think ninety five percent accurate as the saliva test.
[15:33] To get a sense of your cortisol rhythm which is often,
quite often in modern day with electricity in santa plate in strasse and all that so yeah we we really wanna get back into that natural rhythm.
I have energy through the day so this touched past and i think the website is that's test stock we can find out some more info i think it is a really great resource for women because it is,
like i said it the adrenal test female hormones like estrogen progesterone also testosterone managing me a sense of how well you're breaking things down,
i'm so gives you a sense of your detox ability thank you so much for the bridge and there's just so much value packed into that,
everything you just said you know you mention vitamin d and now my brains going down the vitamin d route do you see a lot of estrogen dominance because one of the things i'm noticing in my practices i'm working with women that have either taken or all contraception or,
or eggs are gianni's estrogen for many years and now they want to start having a family and they wanna start to become pregnant becoming fertile and that's just not an option for them right now cuz they're just not cycling normally,
so that's one example the other example is in and working with women that are currently taking the pill or any kind of oral contraception and,
that's putting those synthetic hormones you know into the body and it's really confusing the.
What i like to call the hypothalamus pituitary adrenal or the hp a access so.
[17:05] I wanted to ask what your thoughts were on that and if you've seen that clinically me more often see women coming on birth control and having questions heater for fertility or just the other cycle back.
[17:18] Is frank with people still are on birth control for just thirty crew then i just third leg,
yeah i'm on my birth control or being and everything is going well with them when they come up is usually here from them because.
Yeah people are figuring that their period will come back into the doesn't come back for year yeah i really should you know really works but kinda shutting down communication between the brain and ovaries.
And sometimes i get shut down for what twenty thirty years when women are on birth control sometimes and that can be hard to,
does not back in the place so i do see estrogen dominance for sure coming many people are.
Doing what feeling in of being overweight and when you're fat tissue makes more estrogen,
there's lots of chemical estrogen sources in plastics and beauty products and women are very lt of using a lot of synthetic.
[18:15] Beauty products any unwittingly that have fragrances and parents that are having.
[18:22] At like synthetic estrogen so that's a big problem also yelling meets growth hormone and things like that.
The birth control like humans and other medications is well there's there's a lot of places to be,
exposed estrogen flipside is that the hormone imbalances estrogen and progesterone and making me rob's when we're under stress rate so,
i often see from my client population and maybe years as well doctor i was like,
people are usually coming to me with with already some knowledge in rd trying so you know they may be on like,
really that overweight and there you know there trying to eat well.
Nothing yet it had some background of using birth control pills or you know maybe have some food issues are struggling land and.
[19:18] Very dapper of low overall hormones and low progesterone from the stress piece,
so the estrogen appears to be dominant dom and but it's.
It's not it's understandable feature ache there's a lot of other factors playing in c have low estrogen,
amber just round and so is your in the documents this is what i see a lot i can say enough how,
just that simple stress response and i ask my patients all the time you know are you able to digest your food well you know without any loading or abdominal discomfort after they eat are you able to sleep well you know the functions of the paris and,
pathetic nervous system you know what we influence when we do a chiropractic adjustment.
[20:03] And honestly you know all of that is hormone we regulated we talk about blood sugar making sure that you have stable levels of blood sugar you mention food.
I can't say enough how the use of,
pastor gene in our industrial food complex that most of the beef here in the in the united states i believe they actually inject,
astrid jenn because estrogen makes cells grow up and they want to get larger cow they will actually inject the cows with estrogen so that's why i'm sure you recommend this year clients as well.
[20:34] Find the cleanest the most organic the gmo free food as possible because.
You just don't know what's and everything else and it could be contributing to your hormonal this function.
Or whether that manifests itself is fatigued or.
I have a cycle or an irregular cycle or that your ability that anxiety whatever it might be there are so many environmental things that we can do to just eliminate that exposure would you agree yeah i absolutely agree and there's,
there's plenty of information out there i'm happy to share some resources later cuz alex is on his are just not fully aware like maybe we wanna have more grass fed beef we can you know i'm not sure where to buy it or,
we don't know how to make it affordable or maybe we think are,
shampoo in my size there are okay but we don't really know for sure if they're cleaning their yeah there's a lot you can reduce and i think it,
i want hands it sounds hard but i think once you wear and all these habits and the knowledge i think it's pretty,
pretty manageable to keep the amount of.
[21:47] If somebody asks you play out of your body i mean you mention just a little bit of your personal story i don't know how long we want to get with a listener shipped here but in your introduction you know recovering from post,
pardon depression and all the hormonal changes that occur before during and after delivery yeah i mean frankly i do a lot things are back in and,
the good part is that a lunch means my own recovery and launch me into this.
On line business handicap he really passionate about helping women you know when i became pregnant i had.
Let's see i had been married three months i have had a knee clinic for only six months and for some reason decided to get pregnant if you guys worried about getting older and i got everything that have a lot of strasse,
my ability to handle stress wasn't as developed a that is needed to be i didn't eat as well as i need to be as i need to see.
I worked hard in during my pregnancy so i definitely set myself up for some problems and was.
Is really notches during my pregnancy which now i know i have a lot to do with b six deficiency but i didn't know that the and then after i had my son.
[23:05] Yeah you nicest everything sis i was low i was in focused and you know to some extent anything okay let's be new mom but,
i just i i was in a place like darker than i ever had them in something so i can something so i was really happy and sometimes i was really lost in.
Need to start looking for other tools so,
yes some of it came to me and learning more about my nutrition and healing my god my balance of my hormones that some play styles you like,
learning you know how to prioritize things in my life and i'm learning to cook better than.
[23:45] In just kinda like wearing in this have its and and making decisions on what,
what scares me and and one thousands of selling your kind of already answering my next question here which is really those practical applications as you look back on your own experiences would there be.
One or two or possibly your top three things that could direct people to hey,
you there you know limit your exposure of these things are really try to have a mindset of this wall of being cleaned for me you know that i should of,
then looking into that and i am looking into now it's just minimizing,
i really minimizing what i need to do you and your life whether it's like you know i'm,
i'm jp nagar of business i like yourself but it's like you don't need to chase like ten marketing ideas like pick one so that's the business example you know i'm personal life you know i am,
we live here your listeners are moms with kids and,
you know they don't need to be in ten activity i mean maybe just wanted to because the more yeah more activities the more your eating out all the money on the runway feel stressed so just gonna simplifying.
And is in one more example of an owl and is just simplifying like what you take and like i take in,
very little news here i barely know what's going on or off and i don't think i'm missing much you know i just it just says is more information to process of your life rd feels overwhelming.
[25:28] And now you're so you know worried about you know all the violence in our culture or whatever its like it just as adding another thing to worry about.
[25:38] You're absolutely right there bridge and i'm glad that you mention that because the stress always doesn't have to be no external it can be that starts in our brains that start in our minds not mention.
Not taking and you know a ton of news or whatever on a nightly basis or no constantly.
I mean just that alone you know you can fire that stress response and you know of course record is all again and then you can just throw your.
[26:02] Whole system back into a hormone on this regulation after you've done all that work you know throughout the whole day to keep it balance.
That's a great point i'm glad you mentioned that in terms of other resources to equip our listeners ship weather be books podcasts and things that have helped you things that you've read watched,
anything that you would recommend for our families to elevate their family wellness yeah i probably have a handful of things and stop me if it's too many i mentioned a little bit about beauty products,
being a big source of estrogen especially the way you put on your skin and that's really meant to resort and here stand so one resource for that is.
I the environmental working group has a database called skin deep database.
I'm not sure the url but basically bad and you can look up any product you have in all rated.
[26:54] Her safety and i'm sure they've got some resources are you coming to about five,
i need some ingredients that in one avoid one big one to avoid it's really easy to us to find this is fragrant soap fragrance ls that says fragrance from essential oil of,
organic orange lexus is bad it's synthetic and its an anaconda structure so just china just reduce the amount of fragrance in your life,
if it's you know your,
using like scented trash bags are scented kitty litter or no perfumes or scented been asking lotion,
you have nice that's your hoe reservation for be from a natural source so that's one easy one to look for and that's one resource and then as far as food.
[27:46] In i think most important is just,
i'm a big advocate of like learning to cook and and shopping in summer and now is a great time to like your local farmers market join and agriculture share you don't have to,
you mean i can i get overnight stay,
you know as this gourmet chef cooking with natural foods but you start to learn more and more you know cook at home with your family that's when that thing about having a family is in hopefully you are home or in cooking more and.
The meeting,
you know real foods from scratch is a great place to start yeah little bit more advanced moves is no no i haven't he getting twenty different sources of fiber from plants and vegetables so,
in plants and fruits and we.
[28:37] So bad fiber diversity is good for your that so if your eating eating well it's a no expand your diversity of the amount of plants you need to know by things that are in usually it never popped before you can shop in the,
again international food store in chinese saying so,
that's that's one idea a couple resources i'd love for you to check out my podcast is a women's wellness radio we talk about our home in,
that has been not as much about family is your show but i'm about injured,
introducing first foods are picky eaters and then i guess alas i mention this because i'm really into it right now is a friend of mine who is in our dvd,
to share does a program called body thrive and it's ten habits to thrive ny ten basically free things are close to free that you can introduce like,
i'm eating an earlier later dinner learning to snack on and having like a morning routine gets you energized and,
i love it i love it simple in the accessible you can my like the ten dollar book on kindle that and check that out.
Awesome thank you so much for jane i just love all of the.
Lifestyle and nutrition in the diet thing that you're recommending and i tell people this i tell my patients all the time you know there's so much you can do in that you need to do.
[30:07] On your and it's not.
It's not like a ninety ten percent you know there's so many different treatments and natural and holistic things that you can go do massage therapy acupuncture chiropractic functional medicine all that is fantastic and.
Very powerful signals for healing that if you walk out the doctors door if you walk out the clinic door and.
You go back to mcdonald's and you go back to your couch to lifestyle.
[30:31] It's not gonna be effective for you you're not gonna see the results i appreciate you mentioning that bridget thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
[30:39] Thank you dr isles alright families what you think we'd love to get your feedback if you would like to email me about anything you've heard on this or any previous edition of the family wellness lifestyle podcast,
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[31:54] Music.